Teaching History

August 16

I have been reading Alan Taylor's book, American Colonies, for a class. It is an American history textbook unlike those read in schools. Solana and I talked about how her history teacher in 7th grade, as they learned about the colonization of America, had to stop and interject accurate information about how Europeans didn't just happen upon unoccupied land, but instead claimed land through cheating, killing and annihilating Native Americans.

The American education system has been designed to teach white supremacy and as some white people have become more progressive, instead of demanding wide spread changes to the curriculum, we hope that individual teachers will augment our children's education. It is amazing that not only are most white Americans satisfied with the status quo, but that teachers, including myself, are too scared of what will happen if we question it. I inadvertently questioned the status quo in my second year of teaching and I learned The Lesson (by Toni Cade Bambara). More to come on this later, but if you haven't read it, please do.

So, I have spent some time procrastinating and  imagining how I would teach a US history class. It  would involve timelines around the room: one for white immigrants, Native Americans (unfair to group them since there were so many different tribes, and are still today- but forgive me this), black, Asian, and Hispanic groups. Throughout the class, as we learned about a time period or a war, we would stop and take stock of what was happening to and within each community. Which racial groups were entering the US and why. And within each group, men and women would be discussed separately. We'd have a system of noting the levels of freedom each group had according to their right to vote, own property, get an education, file assault charges against others, bear arms, travel, sit and eat anywhere, etc. Students may have to debate with each other to decide how to rate a group's level of freedom.

We may watch Roots, as I did in middle school, because if there is one time in my life that I can remember a room full of people cheering for a black person, it was for Kunte Kinte. Or maybe not. I'd have to watch it again and see what my 2015 eyes say about it. We would read original texts and examine how our racist nation was formed. Taylor's text would be a great option for my dream classroom as exhibited by my overzealous highlighting.

At one point, Taylor describes "the emergence of a new racial solidarity in 'whiteness' which trumped even the powerful class divisions  between the English. As they came to define a certain minimum dignity due to all white men, the English magnified their superiority over people of another color, especially those who seemed most different: the 'black' Africans" (212). This is the beginning. The rich white men needed to control the slaves and they did so by creating a common "solidarity" for all whites. Shouldn't America's classrooms be teaching and talking about this? When students complain about history and class not being relevant, isn't this how it becomes relevant? Wouldn't analyzing how decisions were made 500 years ago inspire conversation and debate? Can't we imagine classrooms that create just citizens because they UNDERSTAND?